Modeling and Analyzing Factors Affecting Project Delays Using an Integrated Social Network-Fuzzy MICMAC Approach

Factors that cause project delays are directly and indirectly interrelated. Despite this, the majority of prior studies that have been conducted to identify and rank project delay factors have failed to account for interrelationships between factors. Arguably, without taking these interrelationships and their cumulative effect into account, it is unlikely that the challenges associated with project delays will be fully addressed. With this in mind, this article presents an integrated Social Network-Fuzzy Integrated Network-fuzzy Cross-impact matrix multiplication analysis (MICMAC) approach that considers the largely imprecise interrelationships between multiple project delay factors. The effectiveness of the developed approach is shown through an illustrative demonstration that indicates the approach is effective in determining and analyzing the direct and indirect relational structures between the individual project delay factors. The value of the approach lies in its use for developing an effective risk-mitigation plan for minimizing the severity of project delays.